Dealing with August Heat & Humidity

How do your animals handle the intense heat and humidity of summer? Yes, normally August is hot hot hot and we should all be used to it by now, however this year we have had such crazy weather patterns here in the northeast. Between the weeks of rain in June and July, and this very high percentage sticky humidity with highs in the low 90’s…it has gotten unbearable at times!

I live in CT and currently have two dogs and three horses.  While we keep the dogs mostly in our house which is air conditioned, we also have a little kiddie pool out in the yard that they like to ‘dip’ in occasionally to cool off.  We keep our walks and car rides to a minimum and the trips to the lake to swim frequent, and there is always a full bowl of nice cold water for them to drink. Our dogs seem to not mind the heat under these circumstances, so summer is just another month for them.

As for the horses….it seems to be a different story lately. My horses usually spend all day outside grazing in the fields and then are in stalls overnight with hay. The stalls each have a fan for them overnight, so they stay nice and cool even when humid 24 hours of the day. I have friends that switch it up in the summer and turn their horses out during the nighttime and keep them in during the day while it is this hot….however, I live down the road from my horses and am a bit leery about them being out at night without any supervision…just in case!

Outside, they have a nice big run-in shed out in the field that was built ‘into the ground’ sort of speak, so it stays nice and cool. There is also a fan running all day in there to keep the air moving and the bugs out.  While the rest of the year, they are normally out in the field 90% of the daytime and in the run-in shed 10% of the daytime, I am finding that over the last few weeks of this hot/humid/sticky weather, they are spending just the opposite. That would be 90% IN the run-in shed and only 10% out in the field grazing! They hole themselves up in the nice cool shelter standing in front of the breeze from the fans, run out and eat some hay or graze for about 15 minutes, then run back into the run in shed!  Even they are ready for some rain and cool weather to show up!

They have a HUGE water trough right outside the run in that I keep filled with clean cold water for them to drink to keep them hydrated, and we fly spray like crazy this time of year to keep the bugs away….even though it doesn’t always work……and they each wear a fly mask as well. Beyond the fans and cool run-in shelter, we also do ‘hose-downs’ or baths during the hot day to keep them cool and comfortable.  Other than packing them up and moving to a cooler/drier climate every summer, this is the best I have thought of so far………  I am trying to make them as comfortable as possible.

Does anyone have any other great suggestions for how they deal with the heat and humidity of summer with their pets they would like to share? I am sure there are many things people do that work that I haven’t even thought of.

Until then…..bring on the Fall!!!

Dog Domestication Likely Began in Africa

Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News August 3, 2009
Modern humans originated in Africa, and now it looks like man’s best friend first emerged there too.

An extensive genetic study on the ancestry of African village dogs points to a Eurasian — possibly North African — origin for the domestication of dogs.

Prior research concluded that dogs likely originated in East Asia. However, this latest study, the most thorough investigation ever on the ancestry of African village dogs, indicates otherwise.

“Village” dogs are local, semi-feral dogs that cluster around human settlements in much of the world.

“I think our results cast some doubt on the hypothesis of an East Asian origin for dog domestication that was put forward based on previous mitochondrial DNA genetic research,” lead author Adam Boyko told Discovery News.

Boyko, a research associate in the Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology at Cornell University, and his colleagues looked at three genetic markers for 318 village dogs from seven regions in Egypt, Uganda and Namibia. The scientists performed the same DNA analysis on a number of putatively African dog breeds, as well as on Puerto Rican street dogs and mixed breed dogs from the United States.

The scientists determined genetic diversity was just as high for the African dogs as it was for the East Asian village dogs that were the focus of the earlier research.

“Species tend to show the highest genetic diversity near their place of origin,” said Boyko. He explained that this is because the species have “been there longer and therefore have had more time to accumulate diversity, and because as a species expands its range by colonizing a new region, it usually does so with a relatively small band of individuals carrying just a subset of the genetic diversity found in the ancestral population.”

Humans might have then first domesticated dogs from wolves in Africa, with Egypt being one possibility, since wolves are native to that region. Many existing wild species of canid, such as the Egyptian jackal, popularly featured in ancient Egyptian art, are now critically endangered.

The new study, published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also found that some so-called “African” dog breeds are not really native to Africa. These include Pharaoh hounds and Rhodesian ridgebacks, which turned out to not have much indigenous African ancestry.

On the other hand, “Basenjis are clearly an indigenous sub-Saharan breed, and Afghan hounds and Salukis appear to be indigenous to North Africa or the Middle East,” Boyko said.

The pattern seems to be that if a region was colonized or otherwise settled by Europeans, dogs of that area now tend to be less indigenous. Dogs in central Namibia, for example, “looked nearly identical genetically to dogs you would find on the streets of Puerto Rico or in animal shelters in the U.S., a pretty clear indication that these are mixes of various modern breeds.”

Robert Wayne, an expert on wolves and dog domestication and a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA, told Discovery News that he supports the new findings.

“It’s clear dogs did not originate in sub-Saharan Africa, since wolves are not native to that area,” asserts Wayne. However, he agrees that Eurasia is the more likely overall place where dogs were first domesticated, with Egypt being a possibility.

Both Wayne and Boyko hope future genetic research on canines will continue to shed light on the origins of indigenous dog populations to better confirm and pinpoint exactly where the domestication of dogs first happened.

Walk in the Woods

It was a nice day out and the dogs were getting frisky. There is a little stream out back in the woods with a trial running along side of it that needed some exploration.

My boyfriend and I decided to investigate it to see where it leads. We were heading down to the back of our land where the stream is when he said “why don’t you bring Lady along?” I thought, hey why not. She is a good girl and she needs to get out and see what the woods are like. She has never been on a trial before and I wanted to see how she would react. Would she freak out and not want to go and try running home or would she just come along for the adventure? I grabbed her halter and walked her out of the paddock. Pony of course tried escaping but lost the battle. He hates being left by himself; he ran back and forth trying to get to us.

To get to the stream you have to climb down a steep hill. I wasn’t sure how Lady would do so I kept talking to her, letting her know to go slow. She did great. We got to the stream in one piece but I had forgotten that she is not trained to go in water. I walked her up to the stream, I had a feeling that she was going to try and jump it so I moved off to the side. Not to my surprise, she jumped. Mud and water went flying and all in one second she was on the other side of the stream with the look in her eye as if she had just seen a ghost. I walked over to her and patted her on the neck and told her she did well.

Dude went running around as he always does. He loves the water! Charlie on the other hand, not so much. He tries his best to find a way across without getting wet. Then Dude runs up next to him and splashes him with a big wet wave. Lady was just standing there taking everything in. Again, this was her first true time being in the woods. We kept walking up the trial. She stayed right next to me and not once did she try and take off. Out in the distance, there is the sad sound of the pony whinnying.

We walked and walked. The dogs would run up ahead then run back. They were having a grand time. The trail then forked. Jim and I wanted to fallow the stream to see where it led but the trail didn’t go that way. Jim went ahead and made sure that there was a way for us to get through. Lady and I followed, walking under and around trees. She was so good. A couple of times me and her had to stop and wait for Jim to clear a path for us. Lady wouldn’t stand still; she wanted to go be with Jim.

We got to the part where the stream met the river. It’s a big river and Dude was in his glory! He jumped right in, no questions asked! Lady was just staring at it with the look in her eyes as if she was saying “please don’t make me go in there!” Charlie just hung back with Lady and me while watching Dude fool around in the rapids. We got to part of the river where there was a patch of grass. I tied Miss Lady up to a fallen tree and she just hung out and ate the grass. It was so nice to see her out and about in the midst of all the nature.

It was time to head back home. The bugs where thick and it was getting late. We got back to the stream near home. I took my shoes off and went in the water to try and help Lady understand that it’s not going to hurt. Again, I stood off to the side to avoid getting squashed by her if she were to jump. She tried, but I stopped her. I tried walking her in over and over and eventually she got it. She didn’t jump it, she ran through it but at least she went in. We walked up the steep incline and headed home. The pony was so happy to see us! Jim and I let Lady stay out on the lawn to eat some grass because she was so good. Jim has never really bonded with Lady before this day. They both did really well!

I pulled this article from Yahoo News this morning.

Dogs helping injured soldiers under gov’t program.

This was taken from the “Funny Times” and was written in April by Richard Lederer. I found it amusing and wanted to share with all you ‘dog lovers’ out there

Lucky Dogs

Here are a dozen reasons why it’s great to be a dog:

*Your friends never expect you to pay for lunch, dinner, or anything else for that matter.

*When it’s raining, you can lie around the house all day and never worry about being fired.

*If it itches, you can reach it. And no matter where it itches, no one will be offended if you scratch it in public.

*No one notices if you have hair growing in weird places as you get older.

*You don’t have to worry about table manners – and there’s no such thing as bad food.

*If you put on weight, it’s somebody else’s fault.

*Who needs a big home entertainment system?

*A bone or an old shoe or a peanut butter jar can entertain you for hours.

*You can spend hours just smelling stuff – and everything smells good.

*It doesn’t take much to make you happy. You’re always excited to see the same old people. All they have to do is leave the room for five minutes and come back.

*April 15th means nothing to you.

*You can sleep late every day.

*You never get in trouble for putting your head in a stranger’s lap.

Hi All,

It’s been great to share my stories with you, but I am passing on the blogging torch to someone new. Her name is Lora and she is very excited about sharing stories about her horse, pony and dogs as well as stories from her job as  a vet technician.

I’m sure you will enjoy what she has to share and I will stop in from time to time to update you on the adventures of Riley Roo & Miss Kitty.

Here is how Lora describes herself:

“Hi there, my name is Lora Hilton. I am 22 going on 23 in July. I work at a veterinary hospital where I see, learn, and experience a lot of different things. I have an ex-racer thoroughbred named Outlandishlady but I call her Lady for short and a pony named Harley but everyone just calls him Pony. I also have a Chihuahua who is the best in the whole world name Charlie. I rescued him from a really bad situation as well as my horse. I was born and raised in Maine and moved to CT five years ago to go to school. I attended UCONN for animal science equine program but I had to stop because it was too expensive. I will go back someday! I live with my boyfriend and his Labrador/Pointer mix named Dude. Charlie and he get along great! I will be writing a lot about my little pack. They all have great personalities that make for good stories!”

I always think that the relationship between my cat and dog is unusual, but in reality – I have seen cats develop relationships with other non-felines.  When I lived on several acres in the woods there was an old fox and cat “couple” that used to visit us. On a fairly regular basis I would see the 2 frolicking in my yard while standing at my kitchen sink first thing in the morning. My son, who was 4 at the time, and I would watch with fascination as these 2 potential enemies played as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Yesterday my father shared with me a viedo clip that someone forwarded to him. It combines 2 of my favorite things- the song “What a Wonderful World” by the great Louis Amrstrong, and a clip of another unusual pair. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rooyt3ptNco

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Hello,

Below is the contents of an email I have received several times.  The author is unkown. I would like to give credit where credit is due, but to date I have found no one that claims ownership of the diary entries listed below.  Based on the facial expressions and tail wags of my animals, I have to say, the author clearly understands cats and dogs.

So “Kudos” to the author.

 I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I did.

Excerpt from a Dog’s Diary..

8:00 am – Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am – A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am – A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am – Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 PM – Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 PM – Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 PM – Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!

5:00 PM – Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 PM – Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 PM – Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 PM – Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!
Excerpt from a Cat’s Diary.

Day 983 of my captivity.
My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.

They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a ‘good little hunter’ I am. Bastards.

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of ‘allergies.’ I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage..

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow — but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released – and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.
The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe.  For now………

For great cat and dog themed gifts, visit WhalesDirect.com

Those of us who have pets know what a wonderful and enriching addition they can be to our lives. Whether you live a type-A lifestyle, running from meeting to soccer practice to the grocery store, you have achieved a Zen balance to your existence, or are you are at the empty nest stage of life, animals in the home can offer humor, affection and unconditional love.

The high school I went to was quite progressive. Some called it a “new age” school. We had open classrooms and called our teachers by their first names. One of my favorite “idiosyncrasies” of my high school was our “Pet Policy”. Students and faculty were allowed to bring their dogs to school. Looking back on it, I have no idea how it all worked out, but several students and even our Headmaster brought their dogs to school every day. I don’t ever remember a single problem with the animals other than the occasional “accident” but even that was rare. Visitors to our school thought this was strange at first, often times reacting with wide-eyed stare, but upon seeing the interaction between the animals and students, most would ultimately decide that it was “cool”.

Fast forward 10 years.

Ours is a family business. One day a black cat wandered into an open bay door. The cat appeared ill, but not feral. I will tell you the longer version of Rachel’s story another day, but for now let’s just say that the little black cat that crossed our path became a permanent part of our office. During the day she was free to roam in and out of the building, from the warehouse to the office, from desktop to willing laps. Clients and regular visitors to our office came to not only appreciate the tiny member of our staff, but sought her out when coming to the office. When someone had a bad day, Rachel was there to cuddle. Rachel lived a long, and we like to think, happy life with us. When she was somewhere around the age of 9 she disappeared. We were all heartbroken. We discussed getting another cat, but we all felt that Rachel could not simply be “replaced.”

We did not have an office pet for several more years, until my sister adopted Phoenix. She began bringing the dog to the office 1 or 2 times a week she said because she couldn’t bear to look at her sad face as everyone was leaving in the morning. It took no time at all to realize that Phoenix was a real morale booster and she started coming to work 5 days a week. She comes barreling through the door in the morning and makes her “rounds”. She runs from office to office to say “good morning” to everyone.  She wanders through customer service to greet each phone operator. If Phoenix makes it in before me in the morning, she runs at me at top speed when I enter and then skids to a stop at my feet to get and give her morning “loves.”

Phoenix has taken to attending every meeting. Sometimes she sits under the conference table and others she perches herself on the sofa to watch and listen. If we had an extra chair at the table, I can easily picture Phoenix sitting in it. If someone has forgotten to call Phoenix when a meeting starts, she shows up anyway, scratching at the door to be let in. If a day is getting tense for someone they will often take a few moments to bring the dog outside and throw a toy for her. Usually whatever the problem is seems a bit better after watching Phoenix run in circles for a little while. She makes everyone laugh. Sometimes just by cocking her head to the side and raising an eyebrow, other times by running laps around the call center or stalking her toys. Phoenix gives great big hugs. She will put her 2 front paws on your lap and lean against your neck until you cannot resist putting your arms around her and squeezing. Talk about stress relief! Phoenix seems to know when she has made someone’s day better. She may approach them quietly if she senses they are having a bad day, but she can’t help but wag her tail as soon as she sees that she has made you smile. On the rare occasion that Pheeny stays home we are all sorely disappointed.

It may seem silly or counterproductive to have a pet at the office. Many would feel that employees taking time out to play with a dog is not cost effective. From my perspective the opposite is true. Those few moments spent here or there communing with the dog can provide a much needed break to a busy day. The affection and humor she provides helps to relieve stress which makes me feel more productive.  It seems to me that having a pet in the office when possible makes a whole lot of sense. I for one am very happy that Phoenix joined our team.

 I realize this is not practical or possible in many work situations, but when it is possible, it’s something to think about.

Hello All! I hope you had a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July, enjoying family, friends, barbeques and of course, your pets.

I think it’s time to discuss spaying and/or neutering your pets. Animals may like to run and play and socialize with other animals, be very cautious of how much you let them out of your sight. Every year millions of animals are euthanized due to the speed of reproduction in our domestic pets; unfortunately not everyone can find homes for the little puppies and kittens. 

When spaying your female pet, or neutering your male pet, you will find they may become much calmer and not so hyper active. In a female it will eliminate the heat cycle, and will stop any discharge from staining anything in your house. Spaying will also reduce the risk of breast cancer, and the risk of uterine diseases as well as uterine cancer. Spaying your pet can also eliminate mastitis – breast inflammation, ovarian cysts, miscarriages, and delivery complications. 

When neutering your male it will remove the mating drive, so the younger you get them neutered the better off you are; when you get a male neutered young sometimes it will remove their urge to mark their territory all over your house and yard. The earlier you neuter your pet the less of a chance they’ll have of mounting everything they possibly can. Males also have a habit of roaming when they are not in tact, neutering them will help reduce that urge as well. As your male gets older if they are neutered the risk of developing enlarged prostate glands  and prostate cancer is reduced, as well as eliminating testicular cancer. 

Some Myths You May or May Not Have Known:

Spaying and neutering costs too much: 

Spaying and neutering your pet is cheaper in the long run than caring for unwanted litters and the medical problems that can occur when an animal is not spayed or neutered. 

She should have one litter first, to settle her down: 

Having a litter won’t improve her health or permanently change the animal’s personality. And she could be irritable and tired while caring for and nursing her puppies or kittens. 

I want my children to see the miracle of birth: 

But will they? Many pets hide when giving birth. Even if you find good homes for the entire litter, you may be denying homes to animals who’ve already been born. Visit your local animal shelter to see all the stray and abandoned animals. 

If I neuter my dog he will stop being protective:

False. Neutering an animal does not change or alter his instinct to defend his turf. In fact, he will be less likely to wander away. 

Only females need to be fixed, since the litters are their owner’s responsibility: 

But how do those pets get pregnant? A male pet can easily father 750 offspring in his lifetime. 

Keeping animals from having litters is interfering with nature: 

We have already interfered. Domesticated dogs and cats mate more often and have larger litters than their wild ancestors, but cannot survive on their own. 

Spaying or neutering makes pets fat and lazy: 

No, that’s caused by overfeeding and lack of exercise. Spayed or neutered pets require less calories. Cut down on the meals and make time for a walk or play.